Nimma smiled gently when Toddles said he was going to be a good elfsie. Close one. Till the student wanted to play with baby elfsie and give him treats. O___O "Nimma thanks Missus studentsie very much for offer'n baby Toddles a treat but Nimma and Toddles must be go'n along to help the pretty Headmistress." And she gave a little bow. As much as she could with the very heavy and very scary plant.

OHNOES. Nimma turned her head. "Tippin's foot is okay? Baby elfsie Toddles did not mean to hurt Tippin." Eek. Bringing baby elfsie wasn't the best idea. Nimma nodded along with what Pips was saying to the studentsie. Thank goodness Pips was taking care of it. Nimma wasn't able to look after the studentsies as much as she wanted to. She had to talk care of baby elsie. Yep.

Studentsies were very helpful, but they could not bother studentsies! "Mistress Studentsie is very kind, but plant is scary. Pips isn't wanting to scare Mistress Studentsie with scary plant. Mistress Studentsie can leave the tough work to the elvses, she can," he said, puffing his chest out proudly, along with a little hiccup. "Pips will be needing to punish himself later for being delayed by studentsies, he will." After all, the Headmistress needed her plant, no?

Pips hurried along the Ravenclaw table as he spoke to his fellow elves. "Is any other elvsies wanting to iron ears with pips after delivering scary plant to Headmistress with Red Hair?"

Pips agreed with Tippin. They could not rest. "Tippin is a brave elfsie. Tippin's toes will be okay. Toddles will not trample Tippin's toes anymore, he will not," Pips clarified, looking at Toddles sternly. But his gaze softened a bit. Sometimes, they were too hard on Toddles, after all, he was only a baby. "Toddles is brave as well, carrying scary plant to Headmistress with Red Hair." The little elfsie was behaving a bit better now.

Pips looked at Nimma anxiously. "Nimma will make sure baby elf behaves okay?" Toddles must behave or the studentsies would become angry.

OHMYHIPPOGRIFF is that a house-elf?!

Maisie looked at the little elves' conversation in awe. Having never been this close to a house-elf before, she had a strange urge to pat one of them on the head. Although they might get a offended if she gave in to that, so she kept her hands to herself.

So they had a scary plant to deliver, did they? To the Headmistress, eh? "Why don't you like it?" she asked curiously. It looked relatively harmless to her.

Toddles was doing a good job, he was! He didn't even go play when they asked him to and all that. Toddles continued to balance the plant on his head and hands but lifted his chin. He was doing SOOOO good.

"Oooh! Pips I can iron your ears, Toddles is good at ironing." Nod, nod. His nodding sent the plant to wobbling so he quickly stopped.

Oh yes, so future play dates were in order with the nice missies.

Punish Himself? What!

"Oh No!! No, don't punish yourself! I'm sorry I delayed you!" Ariella said quickly before the house elf hurried along with the others. For being so cute they were strange little things. Watching them from down the table she took notice of the plant...it didn't look to scary too her... Hmm

Taylor just stood there a bit confused so she tuned out almost everyone.

Emmaleigh had been sitting over at the hufflepuff table talking to a couple of first years when she saw someone she needed to talk to over at the Ravenclaw table. Grabbing her bag, she headed towards the sea of blue. She felt awkward walking around at the opening feast in her regular muggle clothes, but it couldn’t be helped. As she walked, she fished through her bag and pulled out two coins. When the girl reached her destination, she placed a galleon and a sickle in front of the boy with the dark hair, and piercing blue eyes. “That’s how much I owe you right, Spike?” With that, she squeezed into the vacant seat beside him.

"Nell?"

Wait! WAS HE ALLOWED TO BE HERE? Edmund glanced around and relaxed slightly as he saw people from other houses sat on that table. Was there ANY order at Hogwarts? Now he was too focused on her to notice anything else that was happening. He slid into the seat next to her and looked at her concernedly. "You ran off before I could check on you." He was worried, ecstatic and confused all at the same time! What emotion did they come together to create? Super confusion? Hm.

He couldn't see her face, but he was sure she was mortified about something, though he wasn't too sure why. It wasn't her fault she'd seen a pink princess and thought she'd kidnapped him, he HAD taken a while to get there and was now kicking himself for it.

"Are you okay?"

He was looking for a red head. Lip biting, his eyes scanned the table. He hadn't seen her on the train and after the whole fiasco of the train going all wrong and ... he needed to make sure she was ok.

And well she had boarded the train and was actually here.

Not being able to spot her anywhere, the boy frustrated simply called: "IS THERE A ADDY KENNEDY AROUND HERE SOMEWHERE?"

Maxwell walked up behind Taylor and put a hand on her shoulder, he noted her confused expression. "Everything okay, sis?" He asked taking a seat next to her.

Well, that didn't sound like fun. "Well I'm glad you're okay now though." Portkeys, yeah, they took a little time to get used to. Silvia was also glad to hear that Awarlesta hadn't been hurt by the landing. "Good. I'll have to stop by the Hufflepuff table later and see how she's doing."



"Rather uneventful," Silvia responded to the older Claw. "I visited my grandparents, but otherwise we didn't do anything special." Nope, just a quiet relaxing break. "Though my parents are thinking about planning something for next summer if they aren't too busy." She really hoped so; it'd be nice to have something to look forward to for a change. "So how have you been lately?"

Silvia turned around when she heard a few squeaky voices passing along behind her.

House Elves!

"Hmm... I wonder what they could be doing out here?" she said. Not that there was anything wrong with them being in the Great Hall, it just wasn't often that they appeared during meals. And what was with the plants? And why were they bringing them out during the feast? If they were going to be decorating the Hall, shouldn't they have finished doing so before the students arrived? Maybe there was something else going on. Oh well. She gave them a small smile as they passed, a sort-of thanks for all the hard-work she knew they did around the castle.

Tay jumped a little when someone put a hand on her shoulder, "Max!" She shook her head and buried her head in his chest, crying. Taylor was relieved to have her brother here by her.

Oh dear Merlin... WHO was shouting for her as such? Addy's face turned beetroot red as she peeked up through her fringe, head hung slightly. PLEASE don't let it be something embarrassing... PLEASE!

...

While the shouting was a bit much, she did lift her head and smile as she spotted Nathan. Waving her arms in the air she called out, "OVER HERE!" He had to come to her, though. For Addy had seen him with a GIRL coming in... leading her to HIS table. She knew she shouldn't be, but she was a bit jealous at the sight of it.

Maxwell put his arms around her. "Hey, what's wrong? This feast is supposed to be fun, no crying..." He said jokingly. "What happened?"

Tay looked up. It was obivious that her locket and necklace that Damon gave her was good. "I... I dont know Maxwell." She frowned, "I am so confused... Ariana and Da--Da--" Taylor couldnt even say his name without crying and burying her head in Maxwell's chest again.

Dylan smiled and nodded "Yeah! that's about it, cause we don't want to get into trouble of course. So yeah that sounds good" he chuckled as he saw her count them off on her fingers, he listened as she giggled.. it seemed this girl liked to giggle alot! He looked at her as she looked at him and knew that she was thinking of something but he didn't know what

She then asked him a question, he nodded that they hadn't talked about that "Well my family is mainly my dad, my mother is a muggle who married my dad. But I guess things weren't going so well so they got divorced, mom married another muggle who already had a couple of kids. So now I have step-siblings too" he told her.. "What about you? whats your family like?" he asked her back not knowing what else to ask her.

Just then there was another boy there who was wet.. well it looked like he jumped into the lake and become all wet. He listened as Ariella asked him the same thing.

Him and her father would kill each other? Vickers blinked back in surprise "I-I'm not violent..." he started then gave a small shrug "But I can agree to disagree with someone who has different ideals." Like her father obviously. He did not bother to comment about the Slytherin thing, since he knew each house was guilty of one form of imbecilic fanaticism or another, and left it at that.

His attention shifted to Lottie, whose mood seems to have improved. "Why yes.... quite exciting and memorable " those were a choice set of words that got him to smile despite the fatigue. "Certainly quite different from how I've been coming here to Hogwarts over the past three terms. And quite memorable for you too isnt it Lottie? You enjoyed the boat rides?" he hoped so, would've been awesome if his first trip into the castle also started with a boat ride.





A special talk with the Hat... Vickers swallowed the chuckle and put up a concerned face for Lex's statement "You plan to open a discussion about your sorting results?" Should he explain to her that the sorting was a one time thing? "Maybe you'd like to give it some time... see how you like it in your House? You may want to be sorted in one place but the Hat has the gift of seeing something in you that makes you a better fit in another." And how was his portkey trip? "It was rather rough on the landing... but thats expected if one travels that way." Smirk. Thats why he would much rather fly or apparate.

He returned Vivi's lopsided grin with his own tight lipped smile, wider now of course as she was seated amongst them "Yes quite forgiven, made up for it too by being sorted into the most distinguished house." The like-minded as it were. "Did the Sorting Hat have any trouble where to put you?" he asked curiously as he eyed Alexa quickly "You're.... okay about being sorted here right?" because he has already seen two newly sorted students who seemed a little disgruntled with their placement.



She gave him a smile, not a scowl or a grumpy twitch or worse--a completely i'm-ignoring-you deadpan look-- but a smile, and really he was thankful for it. Heck she could've just gone all scold-y on him right away. But instead she asked how he was "I just landed on my chest a few times--when the train stopped and when I dropped off from the portkey.... knocked the wind out of me.... got a few sore spots but no major injuries, nothing that requires a visit with the Healer...." he said as he watched the Healer storm off with a bag of something from one of the young Eagles. And did she just deduct 10 points from them? Squinty!froowwwwn. What was she so tired with nursing the injured she thought deducting points so early will give her that extra boost of energy?

*****

And he saw the Headmistress rise and as a clear ring from the goblet echoed throughout the hall, calling for their attention. Vickers listened to the new Headmistress with slight apprehension (because of what occurred with the Prefects earlier) and also with a bit of nostalgia for Tate who used to deliver the opening speech for his past two terms at Hogwarts. The red-head Truebridge certainly didnt have a bad opener of a speech, but naturally it would be expected of this Ravenclaw to look for what was familiar in a tradition he knew would be his last...

But his attention was taken by the curious sight trudging up the aisle-- ELVES carrying what looks to be a rather heavy and very pink plant. Indeed it is their job to do such tasks but "Wouldnt it be easier to levitate that plant instead of carrying it?" he murmured as the Elves passed by. It wasnt meant to be a smarty-pants statement, merely something that will make things more... efficient. And he knew very well that Elves can make things FLOAT.

His wonderful voice came from her elbow and she groaned. Just what she needed. Nell peeked at him through the fall of her hair and flushed crimson all over again. He didn't look smug or like he was in the presence of a crazy person. Did a crazy person actually know they were crazy? She didn't know.

Nell sighed and pushed back her fall of hair so that he could see her face. "I'm fine. Just humiliated and mortified." She laughed at herself. Everything she had said had been the truth (with the exception of the princess bit) but it was still hard to face him. She had said something that she hadn't even been able to admit to herself just yet.

Maxwell lifted her head and wiped her tears. "Breath, Taylor...calm down and tell me what happened. I can't help you if i don't know." He said trying to calm her down. "Whatever it is, i'm sure it'll be fine."

Taylor took a few deep breaths and looked at her brother, "Something happened and I dont really know what... but it ended with Damon and I breaking up... I think... I dont really know... I am so confused, Maxwell... I dont even remember the break-up..." Tay looked at him, looking like she was about to start crying again.

"she broke up with D.a.m.o.n." she siad whispering the spelling to make it less painful in a way

Ariella felt bad for Dylan that his parents divorced, she always thought divorces were sad, but they happened all the time.

"I've got a younger sister and a younger brother, but they really aren't good for anything besides getting me a sandwhich and that's after I've bribbed them with some candy. My mum was a muggle too, but she died after giving birth to my sister so now it's just my dad who takes care of us and we visit our nans all the time," Ariella said. She didn't mind talking about her family, or her mother. It had happened and now Ari had moved on, besides she was pretty young when her mother passed away.

"Hey Dylan, you've got any idea why the Board of Goveners are here?" She was really curious, and after the headmistress intoduced them she recognized Lainey up there. Ari had been right, she was apart of the BoG...

Crying made Maxwell very uncomfortable, but he pretended not to care. "Well, Tay that's obviously not you then...if you can't even remember it. I mean did you wanna break up with Damon?" He asked very confused. Maybe there was a bit of foul play.

Groaning? Was he that bad? Attempting to hide his hurt feelings, he looked at the table. Giving her time to compose herself sounded like a good idea. When he saw movement from the corner of his eye, he looked back to her and was greeted by her strangely coloured face. His eyebrows furrowed slightly at her explanation of how she felt.

"But why? You had the trunks fall on you. Anyone would be acting strange after that. Especially when they hit you as hard as they did." He winced slightly at the memory of them falling on her. He hadn't had time to do anything to save her from them. He couldn't understand her reaction to that now, not at all.

Tay glanced at Ariana then back to Maxwell. She shook her head, "No, brother... why would I?" Taylor was frowning but didnt cry.